#TalkTech is the “flipped” approach to Twitter chats. We publish all the topics a few hours before the chat so you can show up at 3 pm EST / 12 pm PST on Thursdays ready to discuss. We discuss three topics a week and the chat lasts around 30 minutes.

We’re shaking things up in 2013 here at #TalkTech! Every couple of weeks, a guest curator will be picking our topics and leading the discussion. Not much will change format-wise… we’ll still publish the weekly post here and the topics will still be tweeted by @BLPIndy, but a guest curator (besides yours truly) will pick the topics and be ready to lead the conversation during the chat.

This week’s guest curator is Sharon Boller, BLP President. She had this to say about this week’s articles:

Woo-hoo. I’m hosting #TalkTech for the first time ever…and I got to pick the articles. I feel like we’ve got some great breadth to TalkTech this week and hope you do, too. We start out talking about what Jerry Seinfeld’s writing style has to do with interaction design. From there we shift to a discussion of the best ways to learn new things – and how technology has exploded the possibilities. We finish with a flourish – talking about an intriguing tool that supposedly makes it easy for all of us to create an infographic – even with minimal artistic design skills. We include the link to the tool so you can try making one for yourself.

Let’s take a look at this topics!

Topic 1: What can Jerry Seinfeld can teach us about interaction-design?

If you’re a Seinfield fan, then you’ll love this video. Even if you’re not, it’s interesting to watch it and read the accompanying blog to see if you agree on parallels between joke-writing and UI/interaction design. This blog outlines a very low-tech process for starting UI and interaction design. I’d like to know how this process matches or diverges from what you know works in terms of interaction and user-interface design. I’m also curious to know if the similarities between Seinfeld’s writing style and UI design resonate with you.

Topic 2: How DO you learn new things online… and does technology make learning easier?

This blog posts outlines some amazing ways to learn new things – almost all of them driven by technology and social tools such as TED, open access journals, Twitter, and YouTube…but with some twists. How DO you learn new things…and how does technology make learning new things easier?

Topic 3: Is it possible to make great infographics without graphic design skills?

Infographics have become a huge trend. We’re seeing them for everything and in everything – newspapers, magazines, Twitter links, Pinterest, etc. But making one requires hours of effort – or does it? This web app provides a WYSIWYG platform for making infographics. The developers say it’s easy to do. We want to know what you think. Sign up for an account and try making one.